'Question is, how am I gonna cheer him up? Or rather, what's he upset about anyway? It's not like this is the first time he got the crap beaten out of him...'

As Reivan pondered, Hector looked toward him and sighed.

The pitiful boy pushed off the grass and squatted on the ground right next to Reivan. "Did you... see?"

"Yep. I did."

"Since when?"

"From around the part where you got slammed in the stomach. Then got told off for being too obvious."

Hector frowned, his head hung low. "You got here at the worst part..."

Reivan chuckled while elbowing his friend. "From my point of view, every part I saw was pretty bad."

His joke must not have been well received, since Hector only let out a sluggish chuckle.

'Wow. He must be really bummed out, huh?'

Over the course of their friendship, the two had grown to be rather blunt with each other, voicing their opinions without remorse or restraint. Of course, both of them knew that the other never meant any harm, so they would always just chuckle or playfully act hurt. In fact, they sometimes competed on who could come up with better insults.

Basically, their love language was verbally abusing the other.

Reivan knew the limits, of course. He would never go so far as to bring up the fact that the twins were orphans, or that they weren't very well received by the majority of their household.

As for Hector's weakness relative to him and Helen, Reivan had lightly joked about that as well. Hector hadn't reacted strongly back then, which was a testament to how serious the current situation was.

'Alright, play time's over I guess.'

Reivan banished all thoughts of kidding around for now. A somber expression was on his face as he asked. "Are you okay?"

Hector rolled his eyes and ran a finger through the grass, plucking a handful up before staring blankly at his harvest. "I don't know."

"You're upset."

"Wow." Hector threw a glance at him, grinning. "Thanks for telling me. You're really good at saying the obvious."

"You wanna talk about it?" Reivan reached out and placed a palm on his friend's shoulder, doing his best to appear comforting.

All he got for it was getting stared at like a weirdo though.

"Why are you being so weird..." Hector grimaced, pushed Reivan's hand away, and stood up. "What's there to talk about? I'm a disappointment. That's pretty much it."

"Hey, that's not true. Don't say that..."

Hector stubbornly shook his head, starting to walk away. "You wouldn't understand, Van. Everyone thinks highly of you."

'You have no idea how wrong you are...'

Reivan's lips formed a sad smile when he recalled how, in his past life, his parents hadn't even visited him once while he was stuck in the hospital. Perhaps he would never truly understand what it meant to disappoint people, but he was used to a similar — if not worse — emotion.

Indifference.

If Hector was a disappointment, that at least meant that people expected things from him. On the other hand, his previous parents simply had no such expectations or interest in him.

Naturally, Reivan wouldn't start some sort of contest for who had the most pitiful childhood. And even if he won such a contest, lording it over someone was like hitting himself in the face.

'He probably won't listen as he is right now. I sure as hell know I wouldn't.'

Was it a multiversal fact that teenagers were angsty and prone to thinking that nobody understood them? Anyway, Reivan knew he had to do things a bit differently if he wanted his friend to listen.

"Hey! Catch."

Hector turned back around at the prince's shout, only for his eyes to widen as he barely caught the spear that had been tossed at him. "Hey, what's the big idea...? You almost hit me in the face, man."

Reivan ignored his protests and stood up, procuring a blunted practice sword from his storage ring.

"Fight me."

"What are you..."

"Fight me, Hector."

Without further warning, Reivan charged forward, his sword aiming for the top of Hector's head.

----------------------------------------

Hector barely managed to sidestep Reivan's surprise attack, his face paling at the wind produced by the prince's blade passing by his face.

"Hey! Wha— Whoah...!" Barely able to get a word in, Hector was forced to block Reivan's follow-up attack.

"I won't use my specials like usual." Reivan grinned ferociously. "Try to keep up!"

'My hand's gone numb! This stupidly strong moron's serious!'

Hector knew that he wouldn't last long if fought the royal brute at such a close range. With a grunt, he momentarily exploded with strength as he forcefully pushed Reivan away. A second later, concentrated wind burst out of the soles of his boots, propelling him upward — just in time to avoid getting skewered by spikes of ice lancing out from below the ground.

'That was too close!'

Once again, air blasted out from his feet, bringing Hector up even higher. With a twist of his body, Hector used the mobility aetherblade art called <> once again, but this time, moving sideways.

"You look like a superhero right now, man," Reivan commented dryly as he looked up at him. "Not quite like the man of steel himself though."

'He's talking about weird things again... Anyway, I just gotta stay away!'

Past sparring sessions made it obvious that the best way for him to deal with Reivan was by keeping his distance and finding an opening — and that was exactly what Hector intended to do.

Unfortunately, Reivan was only slightly less dangerous at long range.

A sound akin to thousands of birds chirping filled the garden as Reivan's left hand glowed so bright that Hector could no longer see it. The prince then raised his arm, palm pointed at Hector.

'Here it comes...!'

Without hesitation, Hector preemptively threw his spear as a sacrifice to stall the massive arc of lightning Reivan would fire at him.

A bright flash blinded Hector and a loud boom soon followed to shatter his eardrums. He barely managed to wrench his eyes open, just in time for him to see his spear become a charred piece of wood.

'You wasted a perfectly good spear, man!'

Feeling slightly annoyed, Hector procured a new spear from his ring and imbued it with his magic power. His forehead creased in focus as he activated an aetherblade art he'd just learned — an incredibly simple art that any self-respecting knight from the Mercer clan learns eventually.

An art that had the potential to pierce anything depending on who used it — <>.

'Take this, you battle junky...!'

Reivan — who'd just expended a considerable amount of magic power — gaped at the sight before smiling, his teeth bared. With a roar, Reivan's entire body was covered in lightning as the edge of his sword glowed brightly with purple light.

Then he bent his knees and jumped.

"Wha—!" Hector's eyes widened at his friend's foolhardiness.

'What the hell are you doing!?'

Forgetting the fact that Reivan probably had a guard, Hector instinctively reached out in warning. However, he'd infused most of his mana in <>, so it was arguably the fastest and strongest attack he had in his arsenal. With Reivan charging forward to meet it halfway, there was no way he could do anything before the two forces clashed.

But it seemed as if he needn't have worried, since with a mighty swing, the blade of Reivan's blade collided with the tip of the spear. A fraction of a second's resistance later, the spear was cut in half.

"You're not the only one with new moves! Wahahaha!" Reivan guffawed victoriously right before he started to freefall back to the ground, the lightning coating his body gone.

'Bastard...'

Rather than being depressed like earlier, Hector just wanted to chuck something at the guy's face.

Luckily, he just so happened to keep multiple practice spears inside his storage ring.

"Shut up!" Hector took one out and hurled it once again. The throw wasn't even an aetherblade art. Just a spear throw infused with all the mana he had left.

It was simple, unrefined, and most knights would likely shake their heads at its primitive nature. But it was all Hector could muster at the moment.

And anyway, Reivan wouldn't be able to dodge this one easily in this state.

As expected, the prince's face paled at the sight. "How many spears do you keep in there...!?"

"A lot!" Hector called back with a grin of his own, only to blanch when he started freefalling too.

'I'm out of mana...'

Unlike an Ascendant who could fly for free, Hector needed to constantly propel himself upward at regular intervals just to stay in the air. Naturally, there were more refined ways to stay in the air as a mortal — especially as one with the wind attribute — but unfortunately, he needed an insane amount of magic power control.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Additionally, the manuals for those techniques were never available for borrowing! He couldn't even learn it if he did have the skills to try.

'I hope Sir Valter will catch me...'

On the off chance that Reivan came to the manor alone, Hector was certainly in for a world of pain from such a high fall. Too worried about how many bones he'd break, Hector didn't have the leeway to watch if his attack landed or not.

"Aaaaaah!" Hector finally couldn't take it anymore and started screaming for help. "Someone catch me!"

It seemed that his pleas were heard as his body roughly landed on a somewhat hard surface. The wind was blown out of his lungs from the impact, but he sat up and looked around.

"Oh, it's Zouros." Hector broke into a smile and patted the massive black serpent he was sitting on. "Thanks, big guy."

He got a hiss and a nod in response before the winged snake picked him up with its tail and plopped him down on the grass right next to Reivan — who was smiling in a smug manner.

"I win," the prince said, almost gloatingly so.

Hector chuckled but surprisingly wasn't too upset about it since he'd expected this outcome. It didn't feel right to just let his friend get away with it though, so he put on a smirk as he shook his head in feigned exasperation.

"Van, you truly are the best friend anyone can have. Only you would see your friend clearly upset about something, then beat him up before gloating."

Reivan obviously didn't like that. "Hey, for your information, I was trying to cheer you up."

"Are you stupid? Beating someone up is not how you cheer them up."

"You say that, but have you looked at yourself?" Reivan crossed his arms and grinned.

Hector instinctively reached up to touch his face, realizing that he'd been smiling.

'Well, now that I think about it...'

"See?" The prince sneered but then he suddenly changed the subject. "Anyway, that was a pretty cool move back there. It was honestly a bit scary to face that spear throw head-on when I'm not using any of my boosts. Anyway, that was a House Mercer exclusive, right?"

Hector grew excited when the talk switched to something he liked. "Yep. It's called <>! I don't know who this Zephyr is, but apparently, the first king named this aetherblade art."

"Why am I not surprised..." Reivan muttered.

"And you know what?" Hector barely heard his friend's words but ignored them in favor of boasting about the move he worked so hard to learn. "Even though it's a basic spear-throwing art, even Ascendant knights from our clan still use it! It's cuz there's so much room for it to grow depending on the person's skills! One day, mine's gonna be so strong it'd pierce straight through the Sword Star's mountain!"

"Even if you could do that, don't just decide to put a hole there... you could hit someone by accident!"

"I know, I know..."

"I'm serious, y'know? Lots of crazy strong people are there. Even a certain bald old man frequents that place!"

"Anyway, speaking of new moves..."

"Listen to me...!"

"What's that one called? The one where there was electricity all over your body! Oh, and the other one too!"

"You're not listening..." Reivan sighed and seemed to give up on Hector. Soon though, a boyish grin graced his face. "Mine was called <>. Actually, Helen learned it too. It only lasts a few seconds, but you get a big boost in physical prowess. Your muscles turn to mush afterward though, so it's meant to be used to finish the enemy off quickly. I don't have to worry too much about that though, since I can kinda heal myself."

"What about the other one? Your sword got weird."

"Don't say it got weird," the prince complained but still gave an explanation. "That one was called <>. It's mainly used to give a blade some extra edge, but it also doubles as a way to dismantle aetherblade arts or spells when used correctly. It's actually an art reserved for active-duty knights. I got it a bit early since I'm royalty though."

"That's not fair to other people..."

"I'll lend you the scroll."

Hector immediately perked up. "Works for me!"

Aetherblade arts were one of their favorite topics, so their conversation seemed to go without end. However, it seemed Reivan still had other plans, so he stood up.

"Sorry. I have a few appointments to get to."

"That's fine. Thanks for coming over." Hector also got up while patting his butt. "Let's hang out sometime."

"For sure." Reivan nodded with a smile, but then his expression turned serious. "Are you okay now?"

Hector was slightly caught off guard by the question, but after thinking about it for a second, he nodded. "I think so."

"Good."

"What would you have done if I said no?"

Reivan shrugged. "Beat you up some more."

"Don't you have some other way to cheer someone up? Violence isn't always the answer — at least, that's what some of my big bros from the clan say."

"It's definitely the quickest way though."

"You're a brute."

The two shared a laugh before Reivan reached out and put his arm around Hector's shoulder.

"Hector, I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But you shouldn't be too hard on yourself, alright?"

"Heh." Hector chuckled wryly. "Sure..."

"I'm serious here, man. There's a difference between pushing yourself and downing yourself. It ain't okay when your thoughts stray toward the latter."

'That's easy for you to say...'

Hector tried to listen to his friend, knowing full well that Reivan meant well. But dark thoughts were bubbling up when he remembered the frustration of being left in the dust.

"Hey, Van..." Hector looked toward his friend, staring deep into the prince's bright golden eyes. "How are you so strong...?"

"Well if you ask me that..." Reivan scratched his cheek and thought for a bit before giving an answer. "I suppose I just try hard."

'Obviously. Even I can see that...'

He didn't doubt Reivan's words at all, but Hector was convinced that he worked hard too.

And yet, why were the results so different?

Seemingly seeing through his thoughts, Reivan stepped away from Hector and lightly punched him on the shoulder. "I think you're comparing yourself to the wrong people."

"The wrong people...?"

"Yep. How many people are a mix of two different species?"

"Uh." Hector frowned, thinking about it for a bit before shaking his head. "I only know one. And that's you."

"Uh-huh. Changing the subject, you understand that I was born with a lot of weird abilities, right?"

"Well, yeah..."

"And how often do you think people with even a single special ability are born?"

"Not very often, probably."

"Right?" Reivan laughed. "And you're comparing yourself to someone who was lucky enough to be born with five of them. Plus I'm blessed with some good things from both of my races. And I'm a prince, in case you forgot. Don't take this the wrong way, man. But there's no chance in hell you'll improve at the same rate I do. There's something wrong with the world if you could."

'Well, he has a point...'

"What about Helen though?"

"That, my friend," Reivan pointed a finger at the sky and wiggled it. "Is a question I have no answer to. She's crazy even without a special ability, but then she has two — though one of them's kinda useless. All in all, your sister's a monstrous weirdo that shouldn't be used as the standard for anything."

Hector broke out into a fit of laughter. Reivan was probably one of the only people in the world Hector allowed to call his sister a monster.

"I mean, I like her, but she gets strong way too fast. You cannot possibly think that's normal, right?"

"Well yeah..."

"So you agree!" Reivan grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him. "This is what I mean when I say you're comparing yourself to the wrong people! Helen and I are weirdos, man. We are absolutely not normal."

"S-s-stop shaking me!"

Hector felt his brain bounce around in his skull. Luckily, the shaking stopped before anything bad could happen.

"Hector." Reivan looked him in the eye, his gaze sharp. "You underestimate yourself. How many people our age do you think could force me to use <>, <>, and <>?"

"Uh..." Hector instinctively thought back to a few weeks ago.

After the first spar with the knights, Donovan invited Hector to join from time to time. Reivan and Helen were pretty much banned, mostly sparring with each other instead. But Hector had the opportunity to test his skills against his peers — and even a few cadets that were slightly older than him.

'If it's those guys...'

They wouldn't stand a chance against the current Reivan.

Although infrequent, Hector also sparred with a held-back Reivan. Which was why he knew that Reivan had changed tremendously from the time he'd gotten socked in the face by a cadet.

The beastly prince's physical abilities hadn't changed at all, but the integration of aetherblade arts had spurred the advantages to new heights. In addition, Reivan's battle senses and instincts were high from the start, so it only became more difficult to face him.

So, going back to Reivan's question...

"I don't really know anyone who could."

"Heh." Reivan seemingly couldn't help but sniff in pride before nodding. "Right? I'm pretty great."

"... You want an award or something?"

"Shut up. Anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that Helen and I are the top percentile — the cream of the crop with an additional sprinkle of divine radiance. You could even say were blessed by the gods or something. Whatever drills the idea into your head better."

Reivan then poked Hector's chest with his finger.

"And you are the one directly below us."

Hector's eyes widened as he started to realize where Reivan was going with this.

"If Helen and I are the strongest and the second strongest in our age..." Reivan pushed the finger further, forcing Hector to step back. "You are the third strongest. If you ask me, that's pretty high up there. Especially when you consider just how many thirteen-year-old brats are out there."

'The third...'

Hector gulped at the thought. It was undoubtedly something to be happy about, and Hector came to wonder why he never realized it.

"You're plenty amazing, man." Reivan smiled as he patted Hector on the shoulder. "And I'm sure you'll catch up with us eventually."

Hector scoffed, shaking his head. "Heh. Yeah right..."

"I'm serious. No matter how fast we run, we'll hit a wall eventually. And then it'll take us decades, maybe even centuries or millennia to overcome them. S'long as you keep trudging forward steadily, you'll catch up."

'That's way too long.'

Still the thought that it could happen raised Hector's spirits. He looked his friend in the eye and grinned. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. As you said earlier, I'm really good at stating the obvious."

"Pff. I did say that."

The two shared a laugh as they started walking out of the garden through a staircase built into one side of the walls around them.

"Anyway," Reivan strode forward, making his way up the steps ahead of Hector. "If you ever need cheering up, just lemme know. Friends are only useful for these kinds of things, so I hope you'll make use of me as you see fit."

"Thanks, I'll do that. I don't agree with your last statement though. They're also useful when you have no money."

"I stand corrected. Jokes aside, there are plenty of people you can talk to about these things too. Sister Stella, those big bros you talked about... probably not Helen though, since she'd just try to cheer you up with food. Or in a no-holds-barred fight. Heck, she's not here all the time, but couldn't you talk to the Matriarch too? I think she likes you."

Hector froze in his tracks for a moment, before he resumed climbing upward — but at a slower pace this time.

"You need to get your eyes fixed, Van."

"My eyes are perfectly fine, you moron. And they can see through a lot of things. Trust me on this. Why do you think we never get scammed at the night market?"

Doubt still filled Hector's heart as he hesitantly muttered. "She doesn't like me. At all."

Reivan snorted. "You think she came all the way here from the frontlines just so she could waste time on a brat she didn't like?"

Hector grew flustered at the thought. "B-but..."

"She even gave you all sorts of advice too. Advice that's specially tailored to you — from one of the strongest Ascendants in Aizen, at that — isn't something anyone can get, y'know? As expected, having family in high places is the best. We should make a golden spoon club or something."

"B-but you heard her, right? The way she talked and looked at me..."

"Hm?" Reivan grunted. "What about it? I didn't see or hear anything particularly weird."

"You must've seen how disappointed she was in me, right!? She was... she was comparing me to you guys and everything!"

"Uhhh..." Reivan stopped and glanced back at him. "Were we listening to the same thing? I don't think she ever said anything like that."

Hector thought back, realizing that he'd unconsciously talked about something he shouldn't. Even he knew that he'd sound like a crazy person if he ever told anyone that he heard voices in his head.

Seeking to fix things, Hector spluttered. "Sh-she never said it directly. But I know that's what she meant."

It wasn't a lie since he was convinced that the Matriarch hid those thoughts behind her words.

"You're definitely overthinking things, man." Reivan shook his head in exasperation. Seemingly giving up on him, the prince shrugged and resumed climbing up the stairs while muttering to himself. "Miscommunication really is a scary thing~ Maybe Helen was so bad at talking cuz it runs in the family. She definitely got it from the Duchess — only that girl's case was slightly exaggerated."

The walls were stone and the two boys were quite close with each other, so Hector naturally heard Reivan's mutters.

Not that the silver-haired prince intended to hide it anyway.

'Am I really... just overthinking...? Was it all in my head?'

Reivan's words made Hector realize that there were plenty of similarities between his sister and the Matriarch. Perhaps he simply never noticed it because he rarely ever saw the Duchess, and her presence was always so intense that he was pretty much always anxious in her company.

Usually quiet but had a sharp and unrestrained mouth that hurled harsh words but hid kind intentions underneath. An expressionless face that masked a myriad of emotions behind it. And overwhelming skill in combat.

'Are they... really alike?'

Hector's perception of the fearsome Duchess was gradually crumbling from Reivan's mutterings.

----------------------------------------

'God, look at this guy...'

Reivan secretly shot his friend a glance as he climbed up the winding staircase, inwardly remarking on how much Hector resembled a sad puppy. He'd tried his best to raise Hector's spirits, and though it did seem to work, Reivan failed to bring him back to his usual state — a stupid kid who happily did stupid things together with him.

'I've tried everything. Anything more than this will come off as too preachy. Well, I guess I've already been pretty preachy...'

In any case, he had to find another way to cheer up his friend.

'How did people in a medieval fantasy world cheer up a sad friend again...?'

The first thing his horny mind came up with was to take Hector to a brothel. Nothing raised a man's spirits more than a woman, after all. And in the isekais he'd read, there were few modes of entertainment.

But that plan was immediately scrapped for very obvious reasons. He also didn't know how his family would react to him going to such an establishment.

'Oh, wait a minute. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard of brothels existing in Aizen...'

Reivan filed this away as something he had to lightly investigate later — while Valter was away, of course. But his first dumb idea quickly gave birth to a slightly less dumb idea.

The prince smirked evilly as he spoke.

"Hey, Hector. You're coming with me to Starwater City. No buts."

Reivan decided to kidnap Hector.